the school teacher vicky soto, stratford, connecticut, and i represent stratford, connecticut, who in the heat of a terrible moment gave her life to protect her students. she hid them. she hid them and lost her life in doing so. they all died in the line of duty. they are heroes and heroines. they gave their life to protect those children that they deal with every day, that they educate, that they care for and that they love as if they were their own. to the first responders who put their lives on the line to stop the senseless killing in sandy hook, we say thank you for your courage and for preventing more young lives from being lost for they, too, ran into a building not knowing what they were going to face. moving forward, we in this institution have to take common sense, constructive steps that will help to ensure these sorts of tragedies will not happen again. and they include insuring better access to quality mental health care, strengthening programs so that communities will have the necessary mental health resources. we have heard so much in the last several days about how we